Uemura Takashi, a former reporter of the Asahi Shimbun, is currently an adjunct lecturer at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo. In 1991, while a reporter for the Asahi, he wrote two articles on Kim Hak-sun, the first “comfort woman” to come forward to tell her story (1991). Because of these two articles, Uemura has been the target of denunciations by nationalists. He has been labeled “the reporter who fabricated the ‘comfort woman’ issue” and denounced by nationalists as a “traitor.” Such bashing took a critical turn for the worse in 2014, to the extent that he and his family risk losing their right to a livelihood.

Eucommia leaves (Eucommia ulmoides Oliver) contain chlorogenic acid (a caffeic acid derivative) and geniposidic acid and asperuloside (ASP), iridoid glucosides used in beverages. We used a metabolic syndrome rat model, produced by feeding a 35 % high-fat diet (HFD), to examine potential anti-obesity and anti-metabolic syndrome effects and mechanisms of chronic administration of ASP. These effects were compared with Eucommia leaf extract (ELE), the positive control, which exhibits anti-obesity effects. A total of six rats were studied for 3 months in five groups. ASP suppressed body weight, visceral fat weight, food intake and circulating levels of glucose, insulin and lipids, and increased the plasma adiponectin level in rats on a HFD. These effects are similar to those of ELE, except for the influence on the plasma glucose level. RT–PCR studies showed that ASP (like ELE with known anti-obesity effects) diminished isocitrate dehydrogenase 3α, NADH dehydrogenase flavoprotein 1 (Comp I) mRNA and fatty acid synthase levels (white adipose tissue), increased carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1α and acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, very-long-chain mRNA levels (liver), and increased Glut4, citrate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase 3α, succinyl CoA synthase, peroxisomal 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, dihydrolipoamide succinyl transferase and succinate dehydrogenase mRNA levels (skeletal muscle) under HFD conditions. Interestingly, ASP administration resulted in significantly increased mRNA levels of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) in the brown adipose tissue of HFD-fed rats; ELE did not affect the expression of UCP1. The increased expression of UCP1 may be negated by many ingredients other than ASP in the ELE. These findings suggest that chronic administration of ASP stimulates anti-obesity and anti-metabolic syndrome activity in HFD-fed rats across several organs, similar to ELE administration; thus, ASP may be an important ingredient of ELE.

Oral intake of Lactobacillus pentosus strain b240 (b240) has been shown to enhance the secretion of salivary secretory IgA in elderly adults. However, its clinical benefits remain to be determined. We tested the hypothesis that b240 exerts a protective effect against the common cold in elderly adults. The design of the present study was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (RCT) with parallel three-group comparison. For this purpose, 300 eligible elderly adults were randomly allocated to one of three groups, namely a placebo, low-dose or high-dose b240 group. Participants in the low-dose and high-dose b240 groups were given tablets containing 2 × 109 or 2 × 1010 cells, respectively, of heat-killed b240, while those in the placebo group were given tablets without b240. Each group consumed their respective tablets once daily for 20 weeks. The common cold was assessed on the basis of a diary. Change in quality of life was evaluated using the SF-36®. Of the total participants, 280 completed the 20-week RCT. The accumulated incidence rate of the common cold was 47·3, 34·8 and 29·0 % for the placebo, low-dose b240 and high-dose b240 groups, respectively (P for trend = 0·012). Lower incidence rates were consistently observed throughout the experimental period in the b240 groups (log-rank test, P= 0·034). General health perception, as determined by the SF-36®, dose-dependently increased in the b240 groups (P for trend = 0·016). In conclusion, oral intake of b240 significantly reduced the incidence rate of the common cold in elderly adults, indicating that b240 might be useful in improving resistance against infection through mucosal immunity.

Large shift of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) spectrum of gold nanoparticles was attained by electrochemical oxidation of the nanoparticle surface. This oxidation occurred in a cell consisting of a pair of indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes with water medium between the electrodes. On one side of the ITO electrode, the gold nanoparticles were adsorbed. The LSPR spectrum was moved consecutively to the red by increasing the applied positive voltage. By the application of 5 V to the cell, the spectrum shift as large as 55 nm was obtained. Though the spectrum shift has already been observed by changing liquid crystal (LC) orientation surrounding gold nanoparticles, the amount of the shift was not large (11 nm). That was because the variation of the effective refractive index of LC was rather small. Our large shift due to electrochemical oxidation resulted from the large refractive index of Au-O. The upper limit of the LSPR spectrum shift by our method is estimated to be 138 nm.

A direction to increasing photovoltaic performances of dye sensitized solar cells (DSC) is proposed. An interface between TiO2/dye and an electrolyte layer is focused on. It is proved that better coverage of TiO2 layers with dye molecules increases photovoltaic performances, where dye staining is carried out in pressurized CO2 atmosphere. This is explained by decreases in the amount of surface traps on TiO2 nano-particles, which is discussed by thermally stimulated current (TSC). The decrease in the surface trap density increases electron diffusion coefficient and improves electron lifetime in TiO2 layers. In addition, the TiO2-staining with dye molecules having the larger dipole moment seems to leave less amount of electron trap. Another crucial research item is solidification. Quasi-solidification is carried out by using surface modified anodically-oxidized Al2O3 films filled with ionic liquids, where ion paths are fabricated on the surface-modified Al2O3 walls by concentrating iodine and iodide molecules on the walls. Because of the fabrication of the ion path, photovoltaic performances increased even after solidification. Grötthuss type mechanism is introduced to explain the increase in the photovoltaic performances after the solidification.

The static second hyperpolarizabilities (γ) of open-shell organic nonlinear optical (NLO) systems composed of singlet diradical molecules are investigated using ab initio molecular orbital (MO) and density functional theory (DFT) methods. It is found that neutral singlet diradical systems with intermediate diradical characters tend to enhance γ as compared to those with small and large diradical characters. This suggests that the diradical character is a novel control parameter of γ for singlet diradical systems.

Recent progress on photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) is reviewed aiming at their application to high performance optical communications sytems. The optical properties, for example dispersion characteristics, can be set by selecting the appropriate combination of air hole diameter and air hole pitch. A noteworthy characteristic of PCFs is their strong birefringence, which suggests optical components with better polarization maintaining characteristics.

This paper describes the characteristics of dispersion controlled PCFs and polarization maintaining PCFs. It describes theoretical analyses and experimental results of fabricated PCFs that have short wavelength zero dispersion at 810 nm, polarization maintaining capability with birefringence of 1 × 10−3, polarization maintaining dispersion flattened functions, and absolute single polarization state support with polarization dependent loss of 1 dB/m at 1550 nm. A supercontinuum generation experiment with PM-PCF in the 1550 nm region is shown with symmetrical spectral broadening to over 40 nm. The potential of PCFs will be discussed with reference to the next generation optical communications systems.

The crude phlorotannins from the brown alga Eisenia bicyclis showed inhibitory activity against 10 of 13 kinds of glycosidases present in the viscera of the turban shell Turbo cornutus. Phloroglucinol and its oligomers – eckol (a trimer), phlorofucofuroeckol A (a pentamer), dieckol and 8,8′-bieckol (hexamers), and an unidentified tetramer – were isolated from the crude phlorotannins by column and thin-layer chromatography. Phlorofucofuroeckol A, dieckol and 8,8′-bieckol inhibited α-fucosidase, β-galactosidase and β-mannosidase partially purified from T. cornutus, while phloroglucinol, eckol and the unidentified tetramer were weakly active. Dieckol was a competitive inhibitor of α-fucosidase with an inhibition constant (Ki) of 0.12 mM. The amounts of phlorotannins released after the immersion of freshly collected E. bicyclis in seawater or deionized water were estimated by high-performance liquid chromatography. Nearly all the phlorotannins were exuded into the medium following the death of the algae, whereas no phlorotannins were detected in the medium of living algae. These findings indicate that the phlorotannins deter the feeding of marine herbivorous gastropods by inhibiting the glycosidases.

Electrochemical thin film deposition in aqueous mixtures containing Cd2+, Zn2+, and thioacetamide has been investigated. It has been found that the atom-by-atom growth of well-crystallized CdS thin film preferentially takes place at the early stage of the reaction, followed by the cluster-by-cluster growth of the poorly crystallized ZnS outer layer, thus resulting in the formation of CdS/ZnS bilayer by a one-step synthesis.

The EUV emission from hot interstellar plasmas is observed by normal incidence telescopes on board a sounding rocket. It was performed on January 29, 1995, to observe the sky area around the HZ 43 close to the north galactic pole. The wave bands (δλ ~ 10 Å) are provided at 130 and 170 Å by the multilayer coating on the reflectors of 20 cm in diameter and of 30 cm in focal length. The focal plane images are detected by Csl coated MCP’s. The observed flux of HZ 43 is 1.5 counts s−1 at 130 Å and 3 counts s−1 at 170 Å. The diffuse emission is 27 c/s/deg2 at 130 Å and 20 c/s/deg2 at 170 Å. Those preliminary numbers are subjects to change along with the data analysis.

The effectiveness of thermal annealing and strained layer superlattices (SLS's) in defect reduction in Si/GaAs structures was studied. The GaAs layers were grown on (100) Si substrates by low pressure MOCVD. They were evaluated by TEM, HREM, EBIC and PL. As-grown layers contained dislocation densities in the 108-109 cm−2 range, depending on the layer thickness. Post-growth and in situ annealing were performed on a wide variety of these structures. TEM examination showed that in situ annealing was more effective as it resulted in confining a large portion of the threading dislocations to the interface region. Furthermore, the interaction of threading dislocations to form closed loops was evident. Additionally, the effect of GaAs/GaInAs and GaInAs/GaAsP SLS's on dislocation bending was investigated. The former SLS, although not lattice matched to GaAs, proved more effective.

Electrical and optical properties of single-domain GaAs heteroepitaxial films grown on Si(100) by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition have been investigated. Cathodolumi-nescence and electron-beam induced current experiments have revealed that signal nonuniformities on the film surface agree in number with GaAs microdefect densities observed through chemical etching, rather than conventional aligned etch-pit densities. The cathodoluminescence experiments also indicate that GaAs properties are improved with increases in film thickness. This nonuniformity and the film-thickness dependence are related to GaAs solar cell characteristics fabricated on the Si substrate. A GaAs/Si interface study proves that p-type Si substrates cause type conversions near the interface due to GaAs growth. Evidence of positive interface charges in the GaAs/Si system is determined by using Hall effect measurements, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy and electron-beam induced current experiments.